Modus Operandi (7 page)

On other occasions the carjacker will attempt entry from the passenger side. He produces a knife or gun and orders the driver to take him to a particular location or to simply drive around until further instructions are given. This type of carjacker has an emergency and selects the vehicle simply by which one is most convenient.

The only way to avoid being carjacked in these circumstances is to lock your doors and keep your windows rolled up so a carjacker cannot easily obtain entry into a vehicle.

Suburbs and Rural Areas.
A carjacker will usually walk in front of a vehicle that has come to a stop or is at a light and pretend to pass out. At this point ninety-nine percent of drivers will exit the vehicle to see if the person is all right. The carjacker produces a knife or a handgun and commandeers the car.

The Bump and Take.
A person will be operating their car on a road when they will suddenly be tapped from behind by another vehicle. While the victim and the carjacker exit their vehicles to check the damage, a passenger from the carjacker's vehicle will come around and steal the car. Quite often the vehicle used to bump the first vehicle was also carjacked, or stolen. This way, carjackers get two cars within a very short period of time.

Chop Shops

Chop shop
is a law enforcement slang name for a location where stolen vehicles are dismantled and the parts sold off to garages and body shops at below market value. Most vehicles that are stolen are sold to chop shop operations for around five hundred dollars. These chop shops strip the vehicle and can make an enormous cash return on their investment, as much as double the initial selling price of the vehicle.

Chop shops can be found just about anywhere — even in the street, mostly the dead-end type. Vacant lots on deadend streets are ideal because the trees located on these lots can be used to lift an engine or transmission out of the vehicle by using a chain over a strong branch. A car can be stripped of all sellable parts in under half an hour by a group of professionals. By removing twenty bolts, the whole front end, including the hood, both fenders, bumper and grill, can be separated from the vehicle. Front ends on late model cars are most desirable because they are used as replacement parts for vehicles damaged in accidents —and front end damage is the most common result of an accident.

Another profitable section of a stolen vehicle is the rear end for the same reason. On late-model vehicles, replacement parts are hard to find because of the demand for the complete vehicle. These parts are extremely difficult to trace because there are no markings that will indicate they were removed from a particular vehicle.

The newest item to steal from vehicles is the air bag. Air bags are sold legitimately for around $1200; stolen air bags are sold for $200 to $500. The bags are stolen and sold to auto repair shops to be installed in vehicles with accident damage to replace used air bags. Thieves have to be careful when stealing these items as setting them off makes them useless.

Chop shops have one or more of the following indications that illegal activity is being conducted: Juveniles are the leading individuals when it comes to stealing vehicles, so you will see the same faces of young people hanging around these shops. Once the word is out that a location is buying stolen vehicles, our young thieves will attempt to please their buyers by following through with their needs.

Junk yards make ideal locations for chop shops because they are usually out of public sight, making it difficult to observe everyday operations. These yards often get their vehicles from owners who are dissatisfied with their present vehicle because of expensive car payments, mechanical problems, high mileage, or they just don't want the vehicle anymore. The owner of the vehicle pays a small fee and his vehicle is dismantled by the junk yard. All parts that have the vehicle identification number (often referred to as the VIN) will be destroyed by crushing. The owner will then report the vehicle stolen and collect his insurance.

Chop shops are also used to make stolen vehicles legal. Skilled personnel can alter the vehicle identification numbers. This craftsman can earn as much as $3,500 per vehicle. Vehicle identification number plates are carefully removed from vehicles totalled in accidents and then installed onto the stolen vehicles. The stolen vehicle can then be regis-

tered. Chop shops also use counterfeit credentials to obtain valid titles.

Chop shops also make a profit from odometer rollback. An odometer rollback is performed to reduce high mileage on a vehicle that is fairly new to increase its market value or comply with a lease agreement. The National Highway Traffic Safety Association reported that odometer rollback annual loss is between $3 and $4 billion. One way to roll back the odometer is to falsify the title prior to resale. Another method is to first detail the vehicle to improve the way it looks: a good wash and waxing, new tires, floor carpeting, brake and gas pedals. A person known in the trade as a
clocker
physically turns back the odometer, which only takes a few minutes using screwdrivers and lock picks. These vehicles can then be sold at auction houses or to used car dealers for an increased profit.

Many chop shops are located in small garages in a residential community. These garages will be detached from the main house and out of view of the street. Inside these garages will be the tools necessary to completely strip the vehicles using a minimal amount of time. There will be an engine hoist, assorted jacks, air compressor, power and hand tools. To avoid detection, one vehicle will be disassembled at a time. The only problem with operations like this is the disposal of unsellable portions. The metal portions can be torched, that is cut up using a welding torch, or cut using various hand and motorized metal saws. These parts can be transported to a salvage yard and sold as scrap.

The other nonsellable pieces, cloths and other material that are worthless, can be disposed of as trash. The only problem with this is that apprehension is likely if an endless supply of nonuseable automobile parts is found in the trash. Some of our backyard chop shops will make midnight raids to unauthorized dumping locations to dispose of their unmarketable goods.

Because chop shops want to avoid detection, they will transport their items for sale in unmarked pickups, light hauling vans or trucks. This is a red flag to the police be-

Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN)

For those of you who don't quite understand the importance of VINs, we will take a moment to explain it. Go out to your vehicle and look into your car through the windshield to the top of your dashboard on the driver's side. Sometimes it will be on the windshield post on the driver's side. The VIN is on a small rectangular plate attached to the car with two rivets, one on each side. These rivets are unique in themselves because their heads, the part which is visible to you, have a shape for each make of vehicle. We are told that these rivets are a controlled item and cannot be purchased readily. The VIN itself is seventeen characters, both letters and numbers. This series of characters specifies the vehicle's make, model, type, and where and when it was manufactured. The VIN is also stamped on the engine and transmission and may sometimes be found on a sticker on the driver's side door. Each manufacturer also places the VIN in a hidden location somewhere on the frame, as a last resort to identify the vehicle if the engine or transmission is missing or has been replaced. The manufacturer changes the location of the "hidden VIN" each year. Only the manufacturer, insurance companies and law enforcement agencies know the location of the hidden VIN.

When a police officer is comparing the VINs on the vehicle's registration and the VIN plate behind the windshield, he may also check the sticker on the door. If this sticker is missing, this is a good indicator to the police officer that something is wrong.

cause legitimate businesses advertise on the side of their vehicles.

Buildings used for chop shops can be legitimate automobile repair or collision repair centers. To avoid detection, off hour late nights and weekends are used to cut up illegally obtained vehicles. These legitimate establishments will increase their business by installing stolen vehicle parts onto

accident-damaged vehicles at a cheaper rate. One good indicator that a legitimate dealer is using stolen vehicle parts is absorbing a large insurance deductible in the repair cost of the damaged vehicle.

Vehicles Stolen for Export

Stolen vehicles for export into Central and South America, the Caribbean and Mexico are in high demand. Mexico is mainly used as a location for chop shops because of a treaty which states that stolen vehicles must be returned to the United States. Mexico is the only country that has this treaty stipulation. Because of the number of mountainous regions and poor road conditions in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, the preferred vehicles are 4 x 4-wheel drives. Officials will make no attempt in these countries to put a halt to the import of these vehicles. A good portion of these stolen vehicles are used by government agencies and upper-class residents. Because of this, the cars must be undamaged and are stolen with the keys.

Once the vehicles are stolen, they are shipped out of the country through freight haulers — commercial shipping lines that use steel shipping containers, which can contain up to two vehicles. To get through United States Customs Service, they use forged documents with altered VINs or inaccurate shipping contents (the vehicles are usually listed as household goods).

In the Caribbean, a law enforcement study reported that one out of every five vehicles shipped from the United States showed signs of being stolen. For vehicles valued over $16,000, the percentage changed to four of every five vehicles stolen from the United States. The amazing thing to remember is that there is a waiting list of buyers who will pay as much as twice the original purchase price of the vehicle knowing it was stolen from the United States. Luxury and 4 x 4-wheel drive vehicles are very hard to come by in developing countries. Wealthy customers are willing to pay the extra price for these vehicles, creating a high demand for stolen cars.

An important consideration in exporting stolen vehicles is the distance the vehicle must be moved to reach a port. Car thieves do not want to get caught and this can easily occur when transporting the stolen vehicle to the port. One method to avoid apprehension is to haul the stolen vehicles in a car carrier. Car carriers, unless they violate a traffic law, are unlikely to be stopped. One problem with this method of transportation is that legitimate car carriers transport one make of vehicle. When transporting stolen vehicles, multiple makes are on board — a red flag for law enforcement.

The United States Customs Service, in an attempt to slow the shipping of stolen vehicles out of the country, applies for and receives regulations that place a time limit on vehicles for export. The vehicles must be registered several days before shipping—enough time that the proper inspection and credential-checking can be performed. Unfortunately, resourceful thieves can circumvent this. They purchase a vehicle from an automobile dealership and ship it to a country. Then they remove the VIN plates, the paperwork, and the plates, send them back to the United States and place them on a similar, but stolen, vehicle. This stolen vehicle is then shipped following regular procedures from the United States to the country where it was requested.

Gray Market Vehicles

A gray market vehicle is basically any vehicle manufactured in a foreign country for use in that country and not for export into the United States. These vehicles are not made according to the United States's emissions and safety standards and often have defects that could result in fires and poor performance; some even lack rearview and passenger-side mirrors. These vehicles are usually represented as vehicles that have been converted to United States standards, but nothing has been changed.